


Midnight

by masterwords



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Doctor Who References, Hotch kind of basically IS the doctor so, Hurt Aaron Hotchner, Hurt Spencer Reid, Just a little soft whump for the soul, Spencer is the good friend Hotch didn't know he needed, two nerds being nerdy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:14:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28229706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterwords/pseuds/masterwords
Summary: “Reid?” he asked, opening the door after peering through the peep hole. There stood Spencer Reid, a praying mantis on crutches, carrying a large tote bag and a smile.“Hotch!” Reid said, a little too excitedly, and entered when Aaron opened the door for him.  “Sorry for barging in, I tried texting you but you didn't answer.”“Sorry,” Aaron muttered.  “Lost my phone.”  On purpose, but he didn't add that part.  He'd turned off the ringer and set it down after Morgan and Dave had brought him home from the hospital, and it had been lost under one of the piles of newspaper clippings and Foyet's files.  He watched as Reid, rather deftly, maneuvered through the apartment and set his bag down beside the couch, followed by himself, squeezed into the corner.  He looked expectantly back at Aaron, like he was supposed to know what was going on but between the both of them, there was a distinct inability to read social cues.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 85





	Midnight

A knock at the door was the last thing Aaron had been expecting, no one ever came to see him. He'd been holed up in his apartment alone for so long it had become more of a cave than a home. It was dimly lit, piles of papers and case files, mementos of Foyet, littered nearly every surface. He easd himself up off of the couch, his muscles protesting the movement. The bandages beneath his shirt rubbed at the still painful wounds that covered his midsection, reminding him with every step why he was alone, why he was here. He stepped carefully as he made his way for the door, making sure not to let his eyes linger too long in any one spot. 

“Reid?” he asked, opening the door after peering through the peep hole. There stood Spencer Reid, a praying mantis on crutches, carrying a large tote bag and a smile. 

“Hotch!” Reid said, a little too excitedly, and entered when Aaron opened the door for him. “Sorry for barging in, I tried texting you but you didn't answer.”

“Sorry,” Aaron muttered. “Lost my phone.” On purpose, but he didn't add that part. He'd turned off the ringer and set it down after Morgan and Dave had brought him home from the hospital, and it had been lost under one of the piles of newspaper clippings and Foyet's files. He watched as Reid, rather deftly, maneuvered through the apartment and set his bag down beside the couch, followed by himself, squeezed into the corner. He looked expectantly back at Aaron, like he was supposed to know what was going on but between the both of them, there was a distinct inability to read social cues. 

“What's going on?” Aaron asked, finally, moving slowly back over to the couch. He eased himself down gently, stifling a groan as he felt his stitches stretch to their limits. He placed one hand gently against the most painful spot, holding pressure there while it subsided, and looked over at Reid with a frown. Reid pursed his lips and nodded. 

“Sorry, I, yeah you never saw my text...I just thought that since we both had to take some time off, maybe you'd want to have some company. I've already read through every book I was hoping to get through and I...”

Aaron was still holding his stomach, pressing harder, he could feel blood soaking through his shirt. Just a little, but he didn't want Reid to see it, and he was certain it would show up plain as day against the pale heather gray. Reid cleared his throat. 

“I thought maybe you'd like to watch Doctor Who with me. I usually watch it with Garcia on Thursdays, but she's...well she's busy, they took her out of town on a case I figured you'd probably never seen it and maybe a little escape might be nice but if you need me to go...” 

“No, Reid, it's fine. Just...I need to use the restroom. I'll be right back.” He stood slowly, biting into his lip as he did his best to keep himself together. Alone was one thing, he could bleed and groan and moan and be a big baby all he liked by himself, but not with Reid. Once he'd gathered himself, he walked back toward the bathroom and shut the door behind him, leaning against the wall for a moment to catch his breath. Sucking air deep into his lungs, he lifted his shirt up over his head and pulled it off, tossing it to the floor. His torso was a hellscape of blood and bandages, tiny black stitches and fresh pink skin. Some of the cuts had been healing nicely, others were taking longer to even show progress. One just above his hip pulsed and throbbed as blood dripped slowly down into his pants. He pressed a rag to it, held pressure for a moment, felt the blood pounding against his hip bone, the way it made him feel lightheaded. Once he'd stopped enough of the bleeding, he bandaged it back up and slipped into his bedroom to find a new shirt, a dark one just in case it happened again. When he made it back to the couch, still feeling rather lightheaded, he pressed his hand against the fresh bandage and eased himself down more carefully this time. Reid watched him out of the corner of his eye, but didn't turn his head. 

“Hotch,” Reid said softly, positioning his laptop on the table in front of them an even distance between them both. “I know what happened. You don't have to hide it from me.”

Aaron just looked ahead at the computer screen, the faces of characters he was entirely unfamiliar with racing through space, and sighed. “So what's this show about?” He already knew he was out of his element – any show that Garcia and Reid watched together would very likely be more complicated than he was willing to try and figure out. 

Reid sighed. “This guy here, he's The Doctor,” he indicated a pointy faced man with wide, innocent eyes and a brown pinstripe suit. “He's a Time Lord? Mostly immortal, travels through space and time. And that's his companion Donna Noble, they travel together, she's a human...but she's not really in the episode we're going to watch...he's on his own. Snacks?”

Reid reached into his bag and pulled out a mess of tiny, snack sized ziplock bags filled with various candies and trail mix and pretzels. “I didn't know what you liked so I asked Garcia, we did our best.”

“Garcia knows you're here?” Aaron asked, peering at the assortment of snacks that now sat on the cushion between them on the couch. Reid grinned. 

“Of course, I had to tell her I was going to watch Midnight without her. It's one of our favorites. She made me promise to bring you pretzels, and she said to make sure that I dumped the little salt crystals and crumbs from the bag in too.” 

Aaron smiled. That was his favorite, the satisfying crunch of the salt and crumbs at the end. He didn't even care much for the pretzels themselves, getting to those bits at the end was like a trophy for a job well done. Reid grabbed for a bag of skittles first, and Aaron the pretzels as the theme song began playing. Reid hummed along with it, bobbing his head along, and Aaron noted the motion of his fingers playing the notes on his own invisible theremin. He envied Reid, so unafraid to just be himself, to show all his cards, to be so unabashedly human. 

“These people are awful,” Aaron muttered, watching some of humanity's darkest traits play out on screen before him. “That poor man.”

“The doctor loves humans though,” Reid muttered, tearing into his second bag of candy. “All of our quirks and madness, he's obsessed with preserving it all. It's all worthwhile.”

Aaron regarded that statement intensely for the remainder of the episode, and whether it was the medications he was on making his emotions closer to the surface or the trauma he'd just lived through, he found himself tearing up as he watched The Doctor staring desperately into the faces of people who wanted him dead, pleading with them silently. He swiped at the tear on his cheek as the episode ended and Reid leaned forward to hit the space bar, pausing the end credits. 

“Did you hate it?” he asked, leaning back and watching his friend. Aaron cleared his throat.

“No, I didn't hate it...” he muttered, toying with the empty bag in his hand. He'd finished the pretzels but had been too engrossed in what was happening to put the bag down. Reid grinned like a child who had just won the approval of a worshiped adult. 

“Want to watch one more?!”

“I'd...sure. Yes. One more.” Aaron wanted to sleep, he wanted to be alone, to wallow in his misery and obsess over all the ways his life had gone wrong - but he had to admit that having Reid there wasn't so bad. It was almost like watching TV with Jack – it wasn't really so much about what was on as the company he had. He doubted whether he'd come away from a second episode feeling like he needed to ever watch this show again, but it wasn't the worst thing he'd ever watched for the sake of another person's happiness. 

“Okay! The next episode is pretty intense, there's a lot going on, if you get confused just ask...”

Aaron laughed, shaking his head. It came out of nowhere, and he realized it was the first time he'd laughed in weeks. “I think I'll manage.” 

He didn't manage. He had a million questions, each of which forced Reid to pause the show and launch into an intense dialogue about time travel and alternate dimensions and rifts and Aaron's brain couldn't absorb the information as fast as Reid was pumping it in so he just nodded along and decided not to ask again. But he did, he kept asking, over and over. So who is the blonde lady again? So why isn't Donna with The Doctor? What's on her back?  
Reid was thrilled by the end of the episode, because it actually seemed like Aaron had enjoyed himself. 

“Wait, wait, wait...to be continued?” Aaron eyed Reid suspiciously. “Did you know this was going to happen?”

“Well yeah, I mean...I never thought you'd want to watch two of them with me. I thought you'd make me leave after Midnight. I can leave it here for you, if you want to watch it later?”

Aaron regarded this quietly for a moment, leaning back against the couch, letting himself sink into it. 

“No, that's alright,” he replied finally, and Reid seemed to deflate before his eyes. “But maybe you can come back tomorrow night?” He perked back up, unable to believe his ears. Aaron smiled. 

“Really?”

“I haven't got anything better to do for the next few weeks, have you?”

It wasn't exactly how Aaron imagined he'd be spending his evenings, but having someone like Reid around just for a few hours had already made him feel better, less alone, and if he was honest, he had to admit he felt a certain kinship with The Doctor. Always surrounded by people who trusted him with their lives, and always just so unbearably lonely. Taking a page from the Time Lord's book, he decided that for the time being, it might be nice to have a companion.


End file.
